The Christmas holidays are turning into yet another disaster for the Italian manufacturing industry . Due to the new wave of infections, mainly due to the Omicron variant, Italians have already canceled 20% of booked stays last months: about 5 million cancellations out of 25 million scheduled departures. This was revealed by a survey carried out by the Confcommercio research office in collaboration with SWG on the basis of Bank of Italy and Istat numbers.
Furthermore, according to the analysis, another 5,3 million bookings have been modified, by reducing vacation days or choosing a closer destination, but there are also 7 million trips still pending.
At Christmas, six out of 10 interviewees were away from home for a maximum of two days, without leaving their own region, while only 5% went abroad. Online data regarding the length of the holiday even on New Year's Eve, when however only 40% of those who take holidays of four days or more will also go outside the region. However, the data on the forecast of the trips abroad: 8% between New Year's and Epiphany, against values that normally, in this period, went beyond 20%. In this situation, the possible recovery of tourism moves to summer 2022.
The Christmas blow is the final blow to a more than negative year: compared to 2019, the last year on which Covid did not weigh, 2021 will close with at least 60 million arrivals and 120 million less presences in our country, while the trips of Italians abroad have dropped by 13 million.
According to Confcommercio, therefore, the Government should support the tourism chain by strengthening social shock absorbers and facilitating access to credit for companies, but also with tax interventions and non-repayable contributions parameterized to the losses suffered.
"The Covid crisis is increasingly affecting the entire tourism supply chain, with thousands of companies that are really at risk of closure, especially hotels, tour operators and travel agencies - comments the president of Confcommercio, Carlo Sangalli - The resources introduced so far by the Government are not enough: more support is urgently needed, the extension of layoffs and adequate tax moratoriums. An Italian economy is unthinkable without the fundamental driving force of tourism”.
